In an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. President Kaz Hirai has said that the company made a point of not providing developers with an ‘easy to program for’ console in order to extend the hardware’s longevity.
"We don’t provide the ‘easy to program for’ console that [developers] want, because ‘easy to program for’ means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so then the question is what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?" Hirai said. "It means the hardware has a lot more to offer."
Hirai’s comments can easily be applied to the concept of CELL, in which developers must become acquainted with the noticeably more complicated architecture. This is clearly evident with the PlayStation 3, as in the beginning many developers struggled with the new hardware, though after having a few years under their belt we are starting to see improvements and better performance out of the console. To this day, developers continue to find better ways to optimise the use of the hardware, further unlocking the technical prowess of the PS3.